Grapes

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT GRAPES

Mary A. Castillo Fine wine and fast cars might help raise a little money for the Costa Mesa Senior Center. The Orange County Marketplace will host a wine-tasting event and silent auction to benefit the center from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Automotive Road of Dreams Museum in the Orange County Fairgrounds. "We try to always give back to the city," said Ryan Miller, spokesman for the Orange County Marketplace. "This is the best fit to help the senior center raise money because they give so much to the community."

A financing company is probably eating sour grapes over the revelation that one of their customers, a Newport Beach vineyard owner, is being charged by federal prosecutors with bilking them out of millions of dollars. Viken Keuylian, 45, of Laguna Hills, has accepted a plea agreement that could get him 30 years in prison for allegedly accepting millions in financing from Volkswagen Credit Inc. for his exotic car dealerships then using the money to support his struggling Newport Beach vineyard on Coast Highway, federal prosecutors said.

Marisa O'Neil Students in Beth Nowlin's sixth-grade class at Kaiser Elementary School ate and dressed like Egyptians during their Egyptian Feast class on Friday. Wearing Egyptian costumes, the students sat amid brightly colored blankets and cushions, eating traditional Middle Eastern foods such as grapes, dates and figs as they listened to each others' reports about ancient Egyptian civilization. "I think it's a topic with a high interest level for them," Nowlin said.

INSIDE CITY HALL Here are a few of the items the Commission considered Monday. WINEMAKING APPLICATION The applicant proposed establishing a winemaking facility in a suite of an existing industrial building at 1954 Placentia Ave. The applicant anticipates producing about 500 cases annually, with the wine sold wholesale from the location. The primary use will involve the fermenting and aging of the grapes and wine. WHAT HAPPENED The commission approved the application, with a condition that the owners address any smells that are detected outside the facility to appease some Westside residents who are concerned about it. WHAT IT MEANS The applicant can establish a winemaking facility at this location.

Young Chang Forget symbolism and themes and debates about a novel's metaphors. When members of the Newport Beach Public Library's Manuscripts Book Discussion Group read a book, they've been known to burst into both tears and song. It happened once during an emotional discussion of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." Charlie Alexander read numerous passages from the text, including one about Italian soldiers in the early stages of World War II being taken away on flatbed trucks to get killed by Germans.

Tony Altobelli CORONA DEL MAR - Kevin Hansen used the fourth quarter as his personal highlight show, leading Corona del Mar High's boys basketball team to a come-from-behind, 58-55 Pacific Coast League win over visiting Estancia Friday night. Hanson scored 14 of his 24 points in the final quarter, leading the Sea Kings back from an 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit. He was 4 for 5 from the field and 5 for 5 from the free-throw line. "We escaped big time tonight," Sea Kings' Coach Paul Orris said.

With a rocket launcher for a throwing arm, a team-first attitude and glittering Hollywood looks, Shane Foley played the perfect supporting role at USC. At a time when the Trojans had a cast of star quarterbacks to read the lead scripts, Foley would wait anxiously on the sidelines and prepare for any on-camera time available after Rodney Peete and Todd Marinovich. "I don't want to sound like sour grapes, or say I was a political victim, but some things that happened I'll never understand," said Foley, who ended his USC football career with broken promises and few explanations.

Now what do we do? No time for funny stuff this week. This is huge. There is a major, global, giganormous problem that must be solved immediately, if not sooner. If everything goes according to plan, it will all be taken care of at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, which is New Year’s Eve, which falls on Dec. 31 this year. So what’s the problem? I’ll try to explain it to you, but being a layman, it may be hard for you to understand. Do you know what an atomic clock is?

UCI studies delve into air pollution causes UC Irvine is studying the cause and effects of air pollution and has several research projects underway on the issue. Large Scale Forest Fires is one such project designed to study how forest fires create large concentrations of ozone with effects that can range from eye irritation to the worsening of preexisting lung conditions like asthma. Also looking into chronic lung disease and the effects of pollution is a project on freeway exhaust, which uses mice previously exposed to asthma-like allergens and placing them at varying distances from congested freeway interchanges.

Enough Wendy Leece already. Maybe the masthead for the Pilot should be changed to the Daily Wendy Leece. It's been going on a month and a half since the elections, and hardly a day has passed without an article, picture or letter to the editor about her election loss -- again today, with her picture on the front page. I'm sure she's a nice, sweet, honorable lady, but let's face it, many candidates were disappointed. Most Republicans won and most Greenlighters lost.